Murri Court process turns man’s life around

If not for the intense counselling of the Murri Court process the 26-year-old might be in jail, his solicitor told the court.

The Toowoomba Murri Court sits every month.

GOING through the Murri Court process had such an effect on a Toowoomba man that he had turned his life around from offending.

Charlie Anthony Book would probably be in jail if not for the Murri Court process, his solicitor Peter Sloane told the same court.

“Coming into the Murri Court situation has helped me out a fair bit,” Book told the court.

Those who go through the Murri Court process have to engage with the community elders, police, department of community corrections who each not only look into the offending but the reasons for the participant’s offending behaviour.

The Murri Court has a good success rate in turning offenders’ lives around.

Book, who until recently had an unenviable criminal record, was fronting court on drug driving and drink driving charges to which he pleaded guilty.

The 26-year-old had said “You’ve got me” when pulled over by police on West St about 9.15am, January 7, the court heard.

A saliva test showed he had cannabis in his system at the time, police prosecutor Sergeant Al Windsor told the court.

Then on May 29 he had been pulled over by a police patrol who noticed he had no bumper bar and flat tyres on Bridge St about 11.20pm.

Smelling of liquor, police did roadside breath test during which he returned a breath/alcohol reading of 0.076.

Police checks found he had been disqualified from driving for two years by the Toowoomba Magistrates Court on September 10, 2019, and the car he was driving was found to be unregistered and uninsured.

Mr Sloane said his client was now off drugs and alcohol and had turned his life around.

Magistrate Kay Ryan told Book he was one of Murri Court’s “good news stories”.

“Your performance on Murri Court has been extraordinary,” she told him.

Ms Ryan placed Book on 18 months probation to include an attitudinal driver offender’s program and disqualified him from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for the next 30 months.